UFC 158's Nick Diaz made most of layoff but makes no promises past next fight

After sitting out what will be 13 months, the usually busy Nick Diaz made the most of his layoff and healed up some nagging injuries.

But even with an upcoming title shot, Diaz, who had actually announced his retirement at one point during his layoff, isn’t making any promises past his next fight.

During a press conference to kick off March’s UFC 158 event, Diaz said he’s simply “taking it one fight at a time” after his championship headliner with welterweight titleholder Georges St-Pierre.

Diaz discussed the fight today at Montreal’s Bell Centre, which also hosts the pay-per-view event on March 16.

St-Pierre (23-2 MMA, 17-2 UFC) and Diaz (26-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) were slated to fight before at UFC 137, but Diaz skipped two pre-event press conferences and ultimately was pulled from the card. Diaz, who admitted today “it wasn’t very professional on my part,” instead lost an interim title fight to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission issued him a yearlong suspension after he failed a post-fight drug test due to marijuana metabolites.

But Diaz, who said he’s used to a busy fight schedule, said he made the most of the time off and healed up.

“I don’t feel I’ve ever been able to make it to 100 percent leading up to a fight,” he said. “All of these fights I’ve had in the last couple years have all been pretty back to back. I don’t feel like I’ve ever been 100 percent and healed up before I started my next training (camp) for the next fight. … It’s nice to kind of heal up for a while and take a step back and see what’s what.”

But admittedly, he was surprised he got the title fight at all. After the close loss to Condit, Diaz suggested he was going to quit fighting, and his subsequent drug suspension only compounded his problems. However, he said he reconsidered the retirement when St-Pierre actually campaigned for the fight and put a potential matchup with Johny Hendricks on the back burner.

“I didn’t think I’d be getting this fight,” Diaz said. “I figured they’d probably stick me with some hard fights for a while and I’d have to work my way back to the fights I want and the things I want. They way I looked at it, I needed some time to see things out. … But I’m a fighter, and you if you give me the right fight, I’m going to be fighting.”

Still, he’s not necessarily ruling out the possibility of retiring after the UFC 158 fight. He said he’s not looking too far into the future.

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